Dave the Nomad

Dave Pines asked me to drive in to Sohna with some of his students to get some supplies and metalwork completed. The metalwork was for some remounting of the solar panels, and Dave handed the project over to me so his team could finish the rain-water harvesting project. This was my first experience dealing with the local builders contracted to do the masonry work, and our translators. The most frustrating part of the whole trip was dealing with the input of the villagers and translators. Sometimes they wouldn’t do things, or decided their way, which would work just as well, was the best way. Our translators only compounded the effect as they were all too happy to include their input and at times exclude us from the discussions with the villagers. No action was done in harm, but it certainly made things more difficult. After finishing our petty arguments we headed to the village to get the work completed.

Sohna is about 40 minutes from Abheypur, and the only place we could have more technical work completed, like welding. We arrived at the metal shop with our pieces to be worked on, and were immediately put on hold as the power was out. The power came on for a brief amount of time, and they did a little work. Again, the power went out, this time for at least an hour, so the friendly villagers carted us off to a nearby temple/hot spring. The shopkeeper proudly showed us around buying us snacks and drinks along the way. We took our shoes and socks off and entered the temple. It was more of a bathing house with a main compound in the middle separated into two baths, one for men, and one for women. Everyone was enthralled with seeing us, and happily said hello and showed us around. At one of the food stands I asked where the trash can was to throw away my plate. He smiled, took it from me, and from behind his counter threw it into the street gutter. Our 30 minutes of metalwork costs us a few hundred rupees, five hours of unreliable power, and some sight-seeing.

We returned with the pieces, and after some talking I realized we had a huge communication breakdown. The parts were all wrong. I managed to talk with the head construction worker, and with a moment alone on the roof I drew pictures and we both mimed what we thought should be done for it to work, where the wind would come from, and what parts we needed. I decided to just make sure I knew what they were doing and it would work with the hope being they would take ownership over it. We needed to return to have slots made on the braces, as the holes didn’t line up. I labeled everything, and poked some holes in some pages of a book for the holes on the solar panel frame to bring along for reference. This time the head construction worker came with me to the shop, and he quickly understood why I poked the holes for each one, so we could make sure they lined up. He smiled, and we both talked around the translator as he tried to ask questions which we both answered him in different languages. This continued as we chose some piping, hosing, and hardware before driving back to the school. Happily, we returned, and the work was completed.

The tools available here are primitive, like scratching out calculations on the roof of a building arguing over angles and lengths, or using a piece of re-bar and hammer to make a hole in brick. Although I could think of a half dozen solutions to a plumbing issue, the real answer was the one the villagers could replace on their own if it broke. Not the one that would work the best, but decommission a whole system until a new part could be bought from the US. The filtration system had a network of PVC pipes to connect, and when asked how we could make holes, they started a fire. The best way for them to make a hole is to heat a metal pipe of the necessary diameter, and melt a hole in the plastic. So a cow-patty fire was quickly made with the help of some dry grass and a lit cigarette.

The engineer in me is continually impressed by the “make it work” solutions. It is in these types of moments I see the willingness and drive within people. There is no money to be thrown at a problem, just ingenuity, innovation, and experience.